


Chapter 1: In My Way

by The_last_airblender



Series: Run [2]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 19:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30127797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_last_airblender/pseuds/The_last_airblender
Summary: Din manages to track you down, but you’re not about to go down without a fight…
Relationships: Din Djarin/Reader
Series: Run [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2213391
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Chapter 1: In My Way

It was already getting dark when the Razor Crest touched down in the busy harbor of Lossith’s capital Ivis. The city was entirely built on trade and the processing of incoming and outgoing cargo ships, so wherever Din looked, it was designed to facilitate that process. Landing platforms of all sizes formed a gigantic circle with a large, round building in the center, which was used for trade, but it also offered other services, such as repairs, storage and meeting rooms. For accommodation, food and entertainment, the crew of a ship had to go into the surrounding city. This was where he would be going as well, but not for beer or meat stew.

At any given moment, Ivis was swarming with merchants, crewmembers and traders from every corner of the universe, a -quite literally- colourful mix of just about every race imaginable. As Din made his way through the crowd, he heard the strangest languages, of which he recognized only a few. Two brightly striped creatures in long robes were busy arguing and expressed themselves in a language unknown to him that seemed to consist of high-pitched sounds and wild hand gestures. A handful of droids on wheels passed him and hurried to a large ship where a cart full of strange-looking objects had just fallen over. Each “parking space” had a platform built into it that, after it was loaded with cargo, would go down and, accompanied by a droid, transport everything through underground tunnels to one of the many warehouses in the city. It wasn’t a flawless system, but it made cargo hijacking a whole lot more difficult.

A scantily clad lady with light pink skin and long eyelashes strolled seductively through the crowd, drawing a lot of attention and handing out little cards here and there to men who stared at her with greedy eyes. A lotus flower, the symbol of her employer, adorned her shoulder. 

Suddenly a man playfully grabbed her arm and tried to pull her towards him and his mates.

‘Will you come and join us tonight, honey?’, he shouted boldly.

He had barely finished his sentence when he began to shake wildly and fell to the floor, blue sparks dancing across his body. A large, muscular man had appeared behind him, a stick with two metal tips in his hand and the same lotus flower on his bicep. He bared his pointed teeth at the friends of the man on the ground, who was still shaking. They quickly took a few steps back and defensively raised their hands.

‘Sorry, buddy’, one of them said.

The woman didn’t seem even remotely phased and continued her way through the crowd with the same seductive expression on her face as before, followed by her muscular companion. She caught sight of Din and there was not a trace of fear on her face as she held out a card to him with her index and ring finger.

‘The girls dig helmets’, she said smoothly.

Although Din had absolutely no intention of actually visiting the Lotus, as the place was called according to the card -which, frankly, he could have guessed himself -, he took the card anyway. He didn’t even know exactly why he did it; maybe it was pity. She was a walking billboard and needed a bodyguard to get home safely - not a life he envied. She winked and walked past him, swaying her hips. He put the ticket away and continued his way to the city. He had work to do.

Since this was a job outside the guild, he had not been given a puck and tracking fob, just a photo and verbal information. That was far from ideal, but he liked a challenge. For at least the eleventh time that day, he took out the photo and looked at the young woman depicted in it. Each time his gaze was drawn to your piercing eyes, which boldly looked at the camera. You had your arm around a young man with curly black hair and a broad smile: your brother, he had been told. Even though he was a few years older, you had a strong bond and did everything together. The photo looked like it was taken at a party: your brother was wearing loose, red robes to match the warm weather of Duugan and you were dressed in a form-fitting dress of the same color, both with a white head scarf around your heads against the scorching sun and gold, curly figures on you tanned arms and hands for the occasion. His eye fell on the gold ring on your middle finger. Your brother wore one too; a family ring, then. 

Din had to give it to you: if one wanted to disappear, they’d have to go here. Once one was absorbed in this intergalactic mess, it would take a good bounty hunter to find them again - certainly without a tracking pod. He would have regretted taking this job, had it not been for one vital piece of information he’d received: back on Duugan you could be found in the theater on a weekly basis.

After asking around a number of times, he now found himself in front of the Ivis City Theater, a stately building with a wide staircase leading up to the entrances. Next to the doors stood security guards of the same caliber as the Lotus guy, although they wore much neater clothes. Din watched them from the spot in the alley opposite the theater where he stood, concealed from prying eyes. The security guards would never let him in; not only were weapons not allowed inside, but he also didn’t exactly fit the dress code. For lack of a better idea, he sat down on a crate and kept his gaze on the doors of the theater. Until he could think of a better approach, he decided to observe. It was only a matter of time until you showed up; cargo ships were not allowed to depart at night due to the engine noises and increased risk of collisions and he doubted you would have gotten a lift so soon. Granted, he was very dependent on these assumptions, but something told him you were still in Ivis.

So he waited.

He had left the child in his pod at the Crest, trusting the guarded parking lots more than the sketchy city neighborhoods. Plus, he wasn’t sure yet how dangerous you were and preferred to keep him away from your infamous knives. Signad had told him how you had been training with your brother since early childhood and, having mastered blasters at an amazingly fast pace, had specialized in the art of fighting with knives of all shapes and sizes. Apparently, you always had some throwing knives on you and rarely went anywhere without your two daggers and a blaster. While your brother was unbeatable with his spear, you could beat pretty much anyone at both short and long distances. Signad had also told Din that hand-to-hand combat was not your forte.

Movement at the theater doors caught his eye and he used the zoom function in his helmet to bring the scene closer. Someone was forcibly being worked out of the theater. A woman in a blue satin dress struggled in the clutches of two security guards, her once pinned up hair now falling untidily around her shoulders. A third security guard threw something off the stairs and Din heard it clatter on the stones. The furious young lady was pushed out the doors, but she wasn’t done with them yet.

‘You’re not listening to me!’, Din heard her scream.

‘Madam-’, a blue-skinned security guard began, sounding forcibly calm.

‘He was touching her!’, she yelled. ‘You should be throwing him out, not me!’

‘Weapons are prohibited in the theater’, repeated a security guard with spikes on his head. ‘You’re no longer welcome here. Be glad that we’ll leave it at that and that we’ll not report you.’

‘That’s your way of thanking me?’ The young lady looked at them in bewilderment — at least that’s what Din assumed, since she had her back to him. ‘This is how assault is handled on this planet? What is this disgusting-’

‘You have one minute to remove yourself from the premises’, he interrupted irritably. ‘And don’t let me see you here again.’

For a moment it seemed as if she would keep protesting, but then she changed her mind and turned around, fists clenched. Din’s heart began to beat faster, and not just because of the satin dress.

It was you.

You stamped down the stairs, bent down twice to pick up your daggers and put them back into the sheaths strapped to your legs, which was possible due to the slits on either side of the dress. Your tanned legs emerged from the shiny fabric with every angry step as you turned left in front of the theater and walked further into town. Any other woman in a provocative dress like yours would be in danger, but the anger seemed to form a scary bubble around you and that was enough to make any sensible man leave you alone. Din came out of his alley and followed you at a safe distance — far from scared, but wary all the same. Angry women were dangerous in themselves, but one had to be extra careful with angry women with two large knives. 

You navigated your way through the city, unfazed by the chilly wind blowing through the thin fabric of your dress, and after five minutes and three turns to the right, Din was sure: you had made him. He needed to act quickly. The words of Signad echoed in his mind: I need someone to bring her back without half the galaxy hearing about it.

He turned the corner and was abruptly greeted by a blow to his helmet that made his ears ring. For a second he was taken aback, but then his instincts took over and he narrowly evaded a dagger by stepping backwards. You lashed out with your other dagger and Din used the beskar armor on his forearm to parry it. He didn’t get a chance to get his own knife, because you attacked him from both sides at once, your daggers like extensions of your arms. With difficulty he fended off the blows, the clatter of metal against beskar echoing through the streets. You were fast and managed to cut him a number of times, but his armor was far from an unnecessary luxury and for the time being managed to stop you from hitting vital organs. He lashed out with his fist when he saw a hole in your defense and punched your jaw, but you barely seemed to feel it and continued your attack, a whirlwind of messy hair and blue satin. A burning pain shot through his side where the beskar didn’t protect him - he hadn’t even seen the dagger coming. He felt his temper rising. He had to bring you back alive, but he was struggling to hold back. He had to change it to a more equal fight if he was gonna make it off this planet in one piece.

Din gathered all his focus and fended off the blades, waiting for the right moment, a hole in your attack… When you lashed out overhand, he took his chance. A quick punch in the stomach made you stumble backwards and he grabbed your wrist and hit it against the wall, making you drop your dagger with a scream. He grabbed his blaster and aimed it at you, but he had made a mistake by letting go of your wrist again, allowing you to grab your own blaster at the same time and aim it at the vulnerable part between his helmet and his chest plate. With only a meter between you, neither shot would end well, but no one fired. Panting, you stood opposite each other for a few seconds, blasters ready to fire at a wrong move, sizing each other up.

Din quickly scanned the street without moving his head. A few dozen people were out and about, but no one seemed to be very interested in the fight, except for a few greedy looks your way. Everyone was more concerned with their own goal for the evening.

‘What do you want?’, you demanded.

Your piercing look seemed to go right through his helmet and a part deep inside of him suddenly felt very small.

‘I’m gonna need you to come with me’, he said.

You snorted. ‘Absolutely not.’

‘We don’t have to make this difficult’, he tried calmly.

‘You’re the one making this difficult, buddy’, you growled, very much unamused by the way your night was going. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you. Go and find one of those Lotus ladies to warm your bed.’

Of course, that’s what you thought he wanted. _Not a life he envied. ___

__‘I’m here to take you back to Duugan’, Din said._ _

__You immediately took a step back, keeping your blaster pointed at him, the colour draining from your face when you realised who sent him._ _

__‘He sent a freaking Mandalorian after me?!’, you hissed. ‘How… where did he even find you that quickly?’_ _

__‘I happened to be available’, he answered drily._ _

__‘The bastard’, you cursed, then softening your tone a bit. ‘Alright, look, I don’t know how much he paid you to do this and I hate to make you miss your paycheck, but I’m not going back there.’_ _

__He raised a brow at the sudden niceness, lowering his blaster a little. You still gripped yours tightly, but he couldn’t help but notice how it now slightly trembled in your hand. You were scared, he realised, and not of him, but of something back on Duugan._ _

__It wouldn’t matter, he reminded himself. He wasn’t planning on letting you leave this planet without shackles on your wrists._ _

__‘You killed four people’, Din said coolly, raising his weapon again. ‘You’re coming with me.’_ _

__To his surprise, you frowned. ‘Four?’_ _

__‘The guards and the mayor’s wife’, he said, impatiently. This conversation was getting way too long for his liking. ‘Now put down your weapons.’_ _

__Instead, you laughed bitterly and closed your eyes for a second. When you opened them again, your mouth was a thin line. ‘He didn’t tell you everything, it seems.’_ _

__‘I don’t care’, Din said, taking a step towards you._ _

__You stepped back, as if the two of you were performing some kind of tense dance, saying: ‘Do you even know who I am? What did he tell you?’_ _

__‘You’re my bounty, and you’re coming with me’, he snarled irritably._ _

__‘Let me give you a hint’, you said with bared teeth. ‘My mother died giving birth to me and my asshole father has been blaming me for that my entire life.’_ _

__Din’s gaze fell on the golden ring on your finger, the same one you and your brother were wearing in the photo. The same one Signas had worn in the inn._ _

__‘Signas is your father’, he said slowly._ _

__So the mayor had twisted the truth and left out some pretty important facts. He hated when people did that._ _

__‘That doesn’t change anything, I’m still taking you back to Duugan.’_ _

__‘Did he tell you why I ran away?’, you went on with that same bitter smile. ‘What lie did he spin for you?’ And, after he didn’t answer immediately: ‘Please, humor me.’_ _

__‘He just said that you escaped from prison and killed three guards doing so.’_ _

__You laughed high and shrill. ‘Prison? I guess that’s an appropriate name for it, the place had certainly started to feel like that the past few weeks.’_ _

__Din’s patience was running thin. People on the streets were noticing them and if he didn’t get them away from here quickly, they might be joined by guards soon for disturbing the peace._ _

__‘Look, lady-’_ _

__‘I wasn’t in prison for killing my mother’, you finally told him. ‘I ran away because my dad wanted to marry me off to my forty-year-old cousin.’_ _

__He went still for a second. ‘Isn’t that illegal?’_ _

__‘On some planets, sure,’ you shrugged, ‘but not on Duugan. And it’s not uncommon in our town. I should have seen it coming, really. I just didn’t want to believe that my father would actually do such a thing. My brother married a nice girl from a respectable family and I had had my eye on someone for a while. But last week, dad suddenly sat me down and told me that I was to marry my cousin, the mayor of a nearby city, for some bullshit strategic reasons. Fearing that I’d react exactly the way I did, he confiscated my weapons and had guards following me everywhere. Finally, I managed to shake them off and gathered some clothes and food and even stole back my weapons, but right as I left the house, the guards found me. I’m not proud of what I did. I truly tried not to hurt them at first.’ You looked at Din, his body language unreadable through all the armour. ‘But they were in my way.’_ _

__A chill ran down his back and he wasn’t sure if the chilly wind was the only cause._ _

__When you spoke again, your voice was barely a whisper. ‘Please don’t take me back there.’_ _

__Din pressed his lips together. He thought of the purse full of credits, of the Crest, probably still being repaired at that very moment, of the agreement he had with the mayor._ _

__Oh well, he had never been really good with authority, anyway._ _

__‘Seems like I’m paying for my ship’s repairs myself, then’, he sighed while putting his blaster away._ _

__You let out the breath you had apparently been holding in and put your dagger and blaster back in their sheaths._ _

__‘Thank you’, you said softly._ _

__‘Where will you go?’, the Mandalorian asked._ _

__You shrugged awkwardly and for the first time since he saw you, you looked completely helpless. Something ached in his chest, a feeling he recognised from the first time he had seen the child, all alone in his pod with a lot of bad guys after him._ _

__‘I’m not sure’, you admitted. ‘I wasn’t expecting to get this far, to be honest. I just figured I would first try to make it here and see where I could go then. Maybe get a job on a ship. Or maybe just hide in a cargo hold somewhere and see what planet I end up on. Let life surprise me.’_ _

__You offered him a small, unsure smile. Din bit his lip and cursed the decision forming in his head, cursed the soft spot that seemed to take over his actions as soon as he was faced with those who were -even a little- helpless._ _

__Oh, he was gonna get hell for this._ _

__‘Ever been to Nevarro?’_ _


End file.
